Fascinating food in New York and occasionally farther afield

Korbro Salad Oil

Domestic cottonseed oil mustn't be misrepresented as imported olive oil, the Department of Agriculture confirmed for the Korbro Oil Corp. in 1935. Cans of salad oil were "alleged to be misbranded in that the word 'Oil', together with the statement, 'Recommended for the Italian Trade', the vignette of a woman in foreign costume, presumably Italian, and the Italian landscape in background, appearing on the label, were misleading and tended to deceive and mislead the purchaser." Under a consent decree, the product was released under bond and permitted to be relabeled — and repacked, too, since "sample cans taken from the lot were found to be short volume."

A modest sign for a later tenant of the building, Montrose Smoked Fish, is also extant; on this afternoon, construction next door cluttered the view.